Ambassador Donald Burnham Ensenat
Former Chief of Protocol of the United States

Ambassador Ensenat was born and raised in New Orleans. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his law degree from Tulane University. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1968 to 1974.

In addition to an active international and maritime law practice in New Orleans since 1974, he has served in the government six times: (1) in 1969-70 as Legislative Assistant to Congressman Hale Boggs, then Majority Whip (and later Majority Leader) of the U.S. House of Representatives; (2) from 1973 to 1974 as the first Legislative Assistant to Congresswoman Lindy Boggs, after election to her husband's seat following his untimely death in an Alaska air crash; (3) from 1975 to 1980, as Assistant Attorney General of Louisiana in charge of federal court and Louisiana Supreme Court litigation for the State of Louisiana; (4) in 1989, President George Bush appointed him, with Senate confirmation, to the Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) on which he served until 1992; (5) in 1992, President Bush nominated, and the Senate confirmed, him as U.S. Ambassador to Brunei, where he served until 1993; and (6) in May, 2001, President George W. Bush nominated, and the Senate confirmed, him as Chief of Protocol of the United States, with rank of Ambassador, where he presently serves.

Mr. Ensenat has also been active in his community. He is a past President and a past Chairman of the 2200-member World Trade Center of New Orleans, the original of now over 300 World Trade Centers around the world. He has served on its Board of Directors since 1985 and on its Executive Committee since 1991. Other civic activities include the Council of American Ambassadors; the Asia Society; the Yale Alumni Association of Louisiana (President, 1985-1987; Chair, Yale Admissions Committee, 1988-2001). He has also served as an officer or board member of multiple professional, charitable, and political organizations, including in 2000 as Chair of President George W. Bush's presidential election campaign in Louisiana.

Ambassador Ensenat is married to the former Taylor Harding of Greenville, MS. They have two children, a daughter, Farish, 27, who is a Class of 2001 graduate of Cornell University Hotel School, and a son, Will, 21, who is a graduate of the University of Texas, Austin. Ambassador and Mrs. Ensenat reside in New Orleans.